Five of the best IPL finals in history

4) MUMBAI INDIANS vs CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (2013)

 

Kept alive by Kieron Pollard’s fighting 60 off 32, the Mumbai Indians bowlers attacked their way to a first IPL title. Mumbai were struggling at 52 for 4 in the 10th over, but Pollard batted through the innings to take them to 148 even as wickets kept falling as the other end. Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson then were too good for the Chennai Super Kings batsmen, yorking and bouncing them out.

Super Kings’ two big Indian batsmen fell to bouncers, their best batsman was done in by a perfect Malinga yorker, and the rest fell under the weight of the pressure and their own conservatism. MS Dhoni came in to bat at No. 7, and Albie Morkel at 8. Twenty20 doesn’t always favour aggressive sides, in that wickets don’t mean as much as they should, but in this match it did.

The first ball Pollard faced he defended away for four. That was sweetly played. He just pushed at a shortish delivery, but the ball scurried along between the bowler and mid-off. He lost Ambati Rayudu after a 48-run fifth-wicket stand, but kept bringing up fours and sixes without taking risks. His countryman, Dwayne Bravo, though, threatened to ruin his plans. This time, though, they would need something special. Malinga, asked to bowl the first over, delivered nothing less than special. A swinging yorker first squeezed under Michael Hussey’s bat. Out came Suresh Raina. In came a backward short leg. Out came an accurate bouncer. Raina fended at it while looking towards third man. Backward short leg took the catch.

Super Kings now sent crisis man S Badrinath ahead of the bigger hitters. If consolidation was his brief, Badrinath exceeded it by driving at a wide length ball from Mitchell Johnson and edging it through. Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja didn’t take too long, and Dhoni had to finally come out at 36 for 5 in the seventh over. However, he ran out of batsmen soon with M Vijay falling to a Johnson bouncer and Morkel to a full Pragyan Ojha delivery, and actually had to begin farming the strike and refuse singles with six overs still to go.

Most of Dhoni’s 63 off 45 came after the match had been lost, and only gave Mumbai an extended time on the field to celebrate the title even when the match was on.